NORMAN, OKLA. – U.S. cities are facing a growing threat that goes beyond hot weather or hazy air. New research from the University of Oklahoma reveals that “compound events” — periods when heat wave conditions coincide with high air pollution levels — are becoming more frequent and intense in urban areas across the United States. According to the National Weather Service, extreme heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon facing the country, causing more deaths each year ...

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is responsible for approximately 74.5% of the reduction in rainfall and 16.5% of the temperature increase in the biome during the dry season. For the first time, researchers have quantified the impact of vegetation loss and global climate change on the forest. A study led by scientists from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil provides fundamental results to guide effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. These are the target themes of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP30), which is scheduled ...

Peking University, September 2, 2025: A groundbreaking study by researchers from Wuhan University, York University (UK), and Peking University has uncovered how Escherichia coli (E. coli) persister bacteria survive antibiotics by protecting their genetic instructions. The work, published in Nature Microbiology, offers new hope for tackling chronic, recurring infections. Persister bacteria, which enter a dormant state to survive antibiotics that target active cells, are linked to over 20% of chronic infections and resist current treatments. Understanding their survival mechanisms could lead to new ways to combat recurring infections. This study utilized E. coli bacteria as a model and ...

The human body is a complex and interconnected system, where alterations caused by one disease can promote the onset of others. This tendency for certain diseases to occur together, beyond what would be expected by chance, is called co-occurrence. Thus, although there are diseases with widely known co-occurrence in certain groups of patients, such as Crohn's disease and the development of ulcers, many of the molecular mechanisms that would explain them were, until now, unknown. A study by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) analysed molecular data from more than 4,000 patients and 45 diseases ...

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered that electrically stimulating “macrophages” – one of the immune systems key players – can “reprogramme” them in such a way to reduce inflammation and encourage faster, more effective healing in disease and injury.  This breakthrough uncovers a potentially powerful new therapeutic option, with further work ongoing to delineate the specifics. Macrophages are a type of white blood cell with several high-profile roles in our immune system. They patrol around the body, surveying ...

What if generative AI could design life-saving antibiotics, not just art and text? In a new Cell Biomaterials paper, Penn researchers introduce AMP-Diffusion, a generative AI tool used to create tens of thousands of new antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) — short strings of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins — with bacteria-killing potential. In animal models, the most potent AMPs performed as well as FDA-approved drugs, without detectable adverse effects.  While past breakthroughs at Penn have shown that AI can successfully sort through mountains of data to identify promising antibiotic candidates, this study adds to a small but growing number ...

An international team led by researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, has uncovered microbial DNA preserved in woolly and steppe mammoth remains dating back more than one million years. The analyses reveal some of the world's oldest microbial DNA ever recovered, as well as the identification of bacteria that possibly caused disease in mammoths. The findings are published in Cell. Researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a collaboration between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, analyzed microbial DNA from 483 mammoth specimens, ...

New Research Identifies a Natural Guardian of Blood Vessel Health Heparanase 2 preserves and restores vascular integrity BAR HARBOR, Maine, September 2, 2025  — An international research team led by MDI Biological Laboratory President Hermann Haller, M.D. and postdoctoral researcher Yannic Becker, Ph.D. has discovered that a little-known molecule, heparanase 2 (Hpa2), plays a critical role in maintaining blood vessels’ integrity. Malfunctions in the vasculature are increasingly seen as an underlying driver ...

ATLANTA, September 2, 2025 — Today, the American Cancer Society (ACS) released Prostate Cancer Statistics, 2025, a report on current prostate cancer occurrence and outcomes in the United States. According to the study, prostate cancer incidence rates have reversed from a decline of 6.4% per year during 2007 through 2014 to an increase of 3.0% annually during 2014 through 2021, with the steepest increase (4.6%-4.8% per year) for advanced-stage diagnoses. Simultaneously, mortality declines slowed from 3%-4% per year during the 1990s and 2000s to 0.6% per year over the past decade. ...

DALLAS, Sept. 2, 2025 — This back-to-school season, the American Heart Association and the National Football League (NFL), in collaboration with its 32 NFL clubs, are taking the physical activity and mental wellness program of NFL PLAY 60™ back into the classroom – this time in connection with the Association’s legacy school programs Kids Heart Challenge™ and American Heart Challenge™. This expanded initiative supports the evidence-based guidance that students who are active learn better, focus more, think more clearly, react to stress more calmy and perform and behave better in the classroom[1], according ...

The Kavli Foundation and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) have announced the latest recipients of funding under their joint initiative to explore how nervous systems function and evolve in dynamic natural environments. This marks a continued commitment to supporting bold, interdisciplinary research at the intersection of neuroscience, biology, and ecology. Building on the inaugural set of awards announced in 2024, this second round of funding further continues to advance the goals of the Neurobiology in Changing Ecosystems (NiCE) program. NiCE supports research into how nervous systems mediate behavioral ...

Most people recognize Alzheimer’s from its devastating symptoms such as memory loss, while new drugs target pathological aspects of disease manifestations, such as plaques of amyloid proteins. Now a sweeping new study in the Sept. 4 edition of Cell by MIT researchers shows the importance of understanding the disease as a battle over how well brain cells control the expression of their genes. The study paints a high-resolution picture of a desperate struggle to maintain healthy gene expression and gene regulation where the consequences of failure or success ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (09/02/2025) — Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have developed aerial robots equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) to detect, track and analyze wildfire smoke plumes. This innovation could lead to more accurate computer models that will improve air quality predictions for a wide range of pollutants. The research was recently published in Science of the Total Environment, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. According to a 2024 Associated Press report, 43 ...

New York, NY — The International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Diana Schendel of Drexel University as the new Editor-in-Chief of Autism Research, the society’s flagship scientific journal. Dr. Schendel will assume the role beginning January 1, 2026. A renowned epidemiologist and global leader in autism research, Dr. Schendel brings more than 20 years of experience in the field. Her work has significantly advanced understanding of the epidemiology, risk factors, and public health implications of autism spectrum disorder. She currently serves as Professor and Leader ...

Why do many people live their lives in social bubbles? A study shows that most people prefer to interact with people just like themselves. Kasimir Dederichs and colleagues conducted three large-scale survey experiments in which respondents living in the Netherlands had to choose between neighborhoods they would like to move to and between civic organizations (e.g., sports clubs and cultural associations) they would like to join. The neighborhoods and organizations varied in their social compositions and other variables that matter for these choices such as financial costs, travel time, ...

A survey exploring how rhetoric about the criminal prosecution of political leaders affects public attitudes finds that Donald Trump’s prosecution ahead of the 2024 Republican presidential primaries had strikingly limited effects on reducing public support for Trump—but caused backlash against legal officials. More than 75 former presidents and prime ministers have faced criminal prosecution worldwide since 2000. To investigate what effect these prosecutions might have on public opinion, Daniel B. Markovits and Andrew O’Donohue ...

To protect biodiversity, a meta-analysis finds that agriculture should use a combination of biodiversity-friendly approaches and protected areas. For decades, scientists have debated how agriculture can both feed the world and safegaurd biodiversity. Should farms be managed in a way that allows non-food species to thrive alongside crops and livestock, an approach known as “land sharing?” Or should agriculture be maximized to produce the highest yield achievable in the smallest space possible, enabling other ...

Embedded systems such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices and single-board computers possess limited memory and processing power, necessitating the effective management of these constraints. This makes Linux—a flexible and cost-effective platform—promising for embedded systems. Indeed, Linux-based operating systems, including Ubuntu Core, Raspberry Pi OS, BalenaOS, and OpenWrt, are commonly used for a wide variety of embedded devices. However, ptmalloc—its default memory allocator—is often unable to satisfy the needs of all applications. ...

Too little snowfall is now also shaking the foundations of some of the world’s most resilient 'water towers', a new study led by the Pellicciotti group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) shows. After establishing a monitoring network on a new benchmark glacier in central Tajikistan, the international team of researchers was able to model the entire catchment’s behavior from 1999 to 2023. The results, showing decreasing glacier health, were published in Communications Earth & Environment. High-mountain Asia has been nicknamed the Third Pole ...

The future of plastic recycling may soon get much less complicated, frustrating and tedious. In a new study, Northwestern University chemists have introduced a new plastic upcycling process that can drastically reduce — or perhaps even fully bypass — the laborious chore of pre-sorting mixed plastic waste. The process harnesses a new, inexpensive nickel-based catalyst that selectively breaks down polyolefin plastics consisting of polyethylenes and polypropylenes — the single-use kind that dominates nearly ...

Researchers have identified a neurochemical signature that sets Parkinson’s disease apart from essential tremor — two of the most common movement disorders, but each linked to distinct changes in the brain. In a new study in Nature Communications, scientists from the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and the Virginia Tech College of Science identified unique chemical signaling patterns of two key neurotransmitters — dopamine and serotonin — that distinguish these two disorders.  “This study builds on decades of work,” ...

PHILADELPHIA – A first-of-its-kind, federally funded clinical trial has shown it’s possible to identify breast cancer survivors who are at higher risk of their cancer coming back due to the presence of dormant cancer cells and to effectively treat these cells with repurposed, existing drugs. The research, led by scientists from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine was published today in Nature Medicine. While breast cancer survival continues to improve, thanks to advances in detection and treatment, when breast cancer relapses—or returns after initial treatment—it is still ...

One of the first parts of the brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease is the entorhinal cortex — a region that plays a big role in memory, spatial navigation, and the brain’s internal mapping system. With support from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases Research Award Fund (ARDRAF), Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC scientists Sharon Swanger and Shannon Farris are working to understand why this area is especially vulnerable.  Swanger studies how brain cells communicate across synapses in disease-susceptible brain circuits, while ...

VILLARS-SUR-GLÂNE, SWITZERLAND, 2 September 2025 -- In a revealing Genomic Press Interview published today in Psychedelics, Professor Gregor Hasler unveils transformative discoveries that are fundamentally reshaping international approaches to mental health treatment through psychedelic research. As Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Fribourg and Director of the Molecular Psychiatry Lab, Professor Hasler stands at the vanguard of a scientific revolution that promises to alleviate suffering for millions worldwide who struggle with treatment-resistant psychiatric conditions. The interview, part of the Innovators ...

VIENNA, AUSTRIA, 2 September 2025 -- In a compelling Genomic Press Interview published today in Brain Medicine, Professor Siegfried Kasper shares extraordinary insights from his distinguished career that has transformed global understanding of psychiatric disorders and their treatment. The interview reveals how this internationally renowned psychiatrist revolutionized approaches to treatment-resistant depression while establishing biological psychiatry as a cornerstone of modern medicine worldwide. Professor Kasper, who serves as Professor Emeritus at the Medical University of ...